Wicked Curveball
by MauMauKa
Summary: WARNING: COMPLETELY NON-CANON! No flames, please. A/N: What if, that night in the studio, instead of James, Bella comes face to face with Victoria? A/U Femmeslash. Don't like, don't read. One-shot. I OWN NOTHING!


**WARNING: COMPLETELY NON-CANON! No flames, please.**

**A/N: What if, that night in the studio, instead of James, Bella comes face to face with Victoria? A/U Femmeslash. Don't like, don't read. One-shot. **

**Wicked Curveball.**

I entered the studio prepared to die. I listened for my mother's voice and ran in the direction it was coming from—a small closet. When I opened the door, however, Renee wasn't there. There was only a video of me and her talking after my atrocious first ballet recital.

I spun around, expecting to see James. Maybe even James holding Renee under his fangs; he liked games. Instead, I saw only the redheaded girl who'd been with him and Laurent in the meadow, the one with the wild, wild eyes.

"_Victoria?"_ I asked uncertainly.

"Yes."

"Where's James? _And where's my mother?!"_

"Your mother is wherever you left her. James…" she trailed off, shrugging. "He agreed to grant us some privacy."

"Us?! This was _your _idea?"

"My desire" she corrected me. She never took her dark red eyes from my face; they were the same color as her hair and stunning against her white skin. "Laurent tells me that Edward and his family refuse to take human life. And that he loves you. Is that true?"

"Yes, it is." I said defiantly. I was more than a little pissed off at the doubt in her voice.

"And yet he won't arm you…won't give you the one thing that would protect you…" she murmured. "Your smell is enough to draw the oldest among us from their lairs. The thirst fades as you age, did you know that? But you, Bella…for you, there will be no safety…unless…"

She stepped towards me. She was still wearing the same clothes I had seen her in at first: the fluffy coat and ragged jeans. Her feet were still bare. I wondered, idiotically, if she ever did wear shoes. I didn't move; I figured I couldn't outrun her and that she must not want to kill me right away.

She put her icy hands on my shoulders, lightly, and brought her face to the side of my neck. I tensed, but all she did was inhale deeply. I was surprised at the shiver that ran down my back.

"So sweet" she whispered. "So absolutely _luscious_. Your boyfriend must either be an idiot or very, very selfish."

"He is_ not_!" I pushed her away and she stepped back, looking amused. "He loves me and I love him!"

"Then perhaps he's just an idiot" she shrugged. "His family cannot protect you forever. Perhaps he doesn't wish to take on the responsibility of a fledgling."

"He doesn't want to _end my life_!" I spat coldly. "I don't agree with him, but his motives are the_ furthest_ thing from selfish! Why are _you_ here, anyway? I thought _James _was the one who enjoyed the hunt so much…"

"James enjoys the chase. He has no interest in the quarry once it's caught" she replied calmly. "When I said I wanted you, he was willing to do the tracking, since no one does that better, but he isn't interested in the _keeping_."

I stared at her.

"Someone like you, Bella, appears in one of our lives maybe _once _in hundreds of years. Laurent himself has never met anyone like you." she went on dreamily. "Is such a gift to be wasted through cowardice? I think _not_." And with that, she caught me in her arms, trapping me in a grip like steel as she drove her fangs into my neck.

_Pain._ I never knew anything could hurt so much! I was burning and freezing and thought I would vomit. My vision darkened around the edges and I could feel myself convulsing and hear my own choking cries. My legs gave way, but Victoria held me easily, ripping her mouth away with a gasp and biting her own wrist. "Drink, Bella" she said, pressing it against my lips. "Drink and be one of us!"

I thought of Edward. I thought of getting old while he remained young. I thought of his not wanting to condemn me to a life of thirsting after human blood. And I thought of running, constantly running, from one place to the next to escape hordes of vampires wanting to drink my blood. It would never end. He understood that, but he still refused. And what if some hungry vampire decided to kill _him_? To kill _all_ the Cullens, even, just to get to me?

The blood hit my throat like liquid light. I thought it would taste awful, with that metallic taste human blood has, only worse. It was nothing like that. It was pure, molten heat, with a faint spice like cinnamon. The more I drank the more I wanted. Victoria collapsed with me to the floor of the studio, her wrist still sealed against my mouth. I pried it away and bit her throat, drinking hard, drinking deep. Victoria moaned and fell back, wrapping her legs around my waist. "Good...good girl.. _prendalo tutto, il mio amore dolce…bevanda dalla tazza di vita!"_

I didn't understand a word she said, but the sound of her voice was enough. I might have drained her dry if someone hadn't lifted me off her.

"Whoa! Easy there…you don't want to kill your maker." I pulled away and looked into the grinning face of James. Victoria lay on the floor still, panting. James crouched next to her. "You okay, Red? Looks like you got more than you bargained for. I don't think I've heard you lapse into your native tongue in eight decades or so."

"And I supposed you watched the whole thing? Pervert!" Victoria sat up and hit him playfully in the arm.

"I did not. I just decided you needed to get yourselves decent." James rolled his eyes with an air of injured dignity. Bella's boyfriend is on the way here…he isn't too happy. With _either _of you."

Oh God…Edward! I felt an immediate flush of self-loathing, wondering why I should when Victoria was absolutely right. I knew he'd be angry, but what was I supposed to do?! _He_ wasn't going to turn me.

_You weren't supposed to _enjoy _it._

I felt my face turn red. I had made my choice, and it was the right one…I knew that to the depths of my being…so why did I feel like I'd been cheating on him?

"_BELLA?!"_ Edward roared from the door. "Bella, are you all right?!"

"I'm okay! It's okay!" I yelled. "Come on in…we need to talk."

Edward rushed in, with Alice and Jasper hot on his heels. He ran to me and caught me into his arms, then jumped back like he had been burned. "_Bella?!_ What _happened?_ What did he do to you?!"

"_I_ didn't do anything" James retorted with an evil grin. "Your girlfriend decided that weakness wasn't her best option. And Vicky took a fancy to her, so…" he shrugged indifferently.

"You _bitch_" he hissed at Victoria as he leaped at her, his hands outstretched. I was terrified that he was going to rip her head off! I threw myself in his way and shoved, and he went crashing to the floor.

"Don't!" I cried. "It's okay! I _said_ it was okay!"

"Not it is NOT okay!" he roared back. "Don't you see?! She's made you into a killer! A creature that murders human lives! And you _agreed _to it!" He stared at me like I was a stranger. "Mother of God, Bella, how could you?!"

"I could because I don't want to spend my life running! I could because I don't want to get old while you stay seventeen forever!" I pleaded. "Can't you understand?! If I stayed human, someone is going to get me sooner or later! Maybe Charlie, too! Or you! Or Esme and Carlisle or any of you! I refuse to be a danger to the people I love! I refuse to live my life in fear!"

He was shaking his head. Alice touched his arm, gently. "Edward" she said softly. "She's right, you know. This would have to be, sooner or later." Jasper said nothing; he merely watched us all intently.

"I would never have wanted this for you" Edward whispered. Tears had begun to run down his face. "_Never_."

"Then you should have stayed away" Victoria said coldly.

"Shut up! _You_ don't speak to me. _Or_ her! You've done enough! Bella is mine!"

"I am her _maker_" Victoria said softly, lethally. "Under our law, it becomes my duty to train and protect her, something _you_ were too cowardly to do."

Edward lunged at her again. This time it took all four of us—me, Alice, James, and Jasper, to restrain him. "You've ruined her" he choked, his tawny eyes full of hate. "You ruined something pure and innocent for your own twisted reasons!"

"And what reasons were _yours_? For keeping her weak and vulnerable? Poor Edward, does she make you able to forget what _you_ are? You're using her and you know it."

"_Stop it, both of you!"_ I screamed at the top of my lungs. Several mirrors shattered, Alice jumped and Jasper put his hands over his ears. "This was _MY_ choice. _MY _decision. Edward, I love you. I always will. You can either accept that and accept what I've become, or we can end it right now." I gazed into his pale, beautiful face and prayed. I loved him so much! I willed him to understand with all of my being. "Please…" I begged. "Edward, I'm still _me_. No matter what I've become, I'm still Bella."

"No, you're not" he whispered. "Bella Swann is dead."

I turned away then, pain ripping through my heart. I heard Edward's steps moving away, towards the entrance. Alice, her dark eyes full of tears, came and hugged me. "Bella, I'm so sorry! I'll talk to him…we _all_ will. It'll be okay, you'll see."

I stood numbly, barely managing to hug her back. Jasper came up and put his hand on my shoulder. "It happens sometimes" he said softly.

"What?"

"We love the _humanity_ of the person more than the person themselves." He hugged me, too. "Don't go away. We'll talk to Carlisle and see what needs to be done next. As for _you_" he swung around and turned his piercing gaze in Victoria. "Treat her well, or there will be no place on earth you can hide. Understand?"

He and Alice left, then. I sat down on the studio floor. I could not stop crying. Victoria held me and rocked me while James awkwardly patted my hair. "No question about it—whether you're human or vampire, heartbreak sucks."

"I thought he'd understand!" I sobbed.

"I thought so, too" Victoria said slowly. She sounded genuinely dismayed. "I was even willing to be noble and place you under his protection, if that was what you wanted."

"Do you think it's true, what Jasper said?" I asked. "That he loved my humanity more than he did me?"

"I don't know, _cara_" Victoria sighed. "But if that's true, then he truly is a fool."

I felt a little better. The three of us sat there for a long time: me in Victoria's arms and James cradling us both—a vampire group-hug. The faint light in the studio faded and went black, but I still had no trouble making out Victoria's lovely face in the darkness.

"Come" she said, getting up and holding out her hand to me. "You have much to learn".

~Fin~


End file.
